Sorry cheese dude. Sort of.

There is a story – anything from funny to quite funny depending on the mood I’m in when I tell it – that I’ve told a number of times. My son finds it particularly funny, so he sometimes asks that I retell it. So I do. Indeed, I did last night, to MayB. I may never tell the story again. Or more than once, because I am about to tell it here:

I went to the fromagerie. Not the cheese section of a regular grocery store, but an actual cheese store. Wandering around looking at all the cheese I wish I could afford (both money wise and waist wise!) I saw several slabs of “Saganaki Cheese”.

Hmmm. Wonder what kind of cheese that is, given that saganaki is the name of the recipe not the cheese. It’s most likely to be Kefalotyri, Kasseri, Kevalograviera or maybe Halloumi. Or any other number of cheese possibilities. So I went and found the cheese guy at the store. And was a sad back and forth-ing of “what kind of cheese is this” “Saganaki” “no, that’s the recipe, it could be any kind of cheese, so what kind is it?” “Saganaki” “but really that’s like labeling cheese in a cheese shop lasagna cheese. I want to know what kind of cheese it is, not what it’s for”. “SAGANAKI”. So I left it there.

I just thought that if you work in a cheese store you should know your cheeses! Now, however, I hang my head in shame. I…I am wrong. Not that he was right! Don’t worry on that score, he was still wrong. It’s just that I was wrong too.

As it turns out that saganaki is the vessel it is cooked in. The little two handled (usually) cast iron pan. It’s an appetizer making thing. Cheese saganaki happens to be the most popular. Also popular is shrimp saganaki, mussel saganaki even (yeah!) scallop saganaki. So not only is it not a type of cheese, it isn’t even a specific recipe; it’s a cooking pot.